


An Easy Choice To Make

by CookieDoughMe



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Discussion of canon major character death, Diverges from canon, Fix-It, Gen, Haven Season Five, Partial Fix it, Reference to Mara, episode 5.13 - Chosen, episode fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27762004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieDoughMe/pseuds/CookieDoughMe
Summary: This is a partial-fix-it in that it leaves a lot of questions (or at least, one very big one) entirely unanswered, but offers a potential alternative for Duke’s story after Mara is gone, in the form of an alternative ending to season 5a.Canon compliant up to the final few moments before the season five break, this offers a slightly happier ending for episode 5.13 - Chosen.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	An Easy Choice To Make

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, a recap of canon, if you need it:  
> Mara has turned Duke into a ticking-Trouble bomb, rigged so that if she dies it will go off and Trouble the whole town. Duke is planning to take her out of town to the thinny the Teagues found in Manteo so that he can kill her and then release all of the many Troubles he’s carrying into the void. Nathan is struggling to accept Charlotte’s plan to recombine Audrey into Mara. The five of them meet by the seaplane Duke planned to take out of town. Charlotte kneels down on the ground with Mara and Audrey either side of her. There is a flash of blue light, and then Charlotte kneels with only one woman beside her. To Nathan’s surprise and delight, it is not Mara that Charlotte has prioritised in merging them, but Audrey. Charlotte explains how she realised her daughter Mara was beyond help. Audrey runs to Nathan, they hug and he tells her he can feel her again; her immunity to the Troubles is restored.

“Uh, hello? So what the hell happens to me now?” Duke asked, frustrated that his only plan to stop himself from Troubling any more innocent bystanders just disappeared.

Charlotte stepped closer to him, empathy mixed in with a professional kind of concern. “Mara told me that she turned your thing off, but I’m not sure if I believe her,” she said carefully.

“She also said his Trouble bomb would go off if she died," Audrey pointed out, concerned. "Is she dead?”

“Yes, but I don’t think she meant right away. We should have some time. Duke can you pull up your shirt, at the back?”

The three of them stared at her.

“I think I know what Mara did,” Charlotte explained. “I saw something when I was examining you before. I didn’t tell you at the time because I hadn’t put all the pieces together then.”

Duke turned to pull the back of his shirt up to his shoulders, then quickly turned back around in surprise when he heard Audrey gasp. “What?” he asked, looking between the three of them. Charlotte looked grim, her suspicions confirmed. Nathan looked thoroughly confused.

“Handprints,” Audrey told them. “Black handprints all down your back, all over you. You didn’t see them?” she asked Nathan, who shook his head. “The same as when Carrie Benson’s Trouble went into overdrive.”

“Mara got the aether,” Nathan realised.

Charlotte nodded, and the expression on Duke’s face hardened further as he realised exactly what Mara had done, and how, and when.

“She amped up your Trouble with the aether,” Audrey agreed. “Handprints all over you, how did she …?” But she didn’t need to form the question to know how Mara had got her hands all over Duke’s body, she saw it in his face that they’d slept together. “Oh god,” she said, appalled at what Mara had done to him.

“Hey it’s not like anyone else was looking out for me,” Duke said, mistaking her concern for disgust at what he had done.

“No, Duke," she insisted, stepping closer to him. "I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what she did to you, that she used that to hurt you.”

Duke looked from her to Nathan and when he didn’t comment Duke’s defensiveness backed down a little.

"I'm sorry we weren't there for you Duke," Audrey said, then turned to Charlotte. “Can you fix what Mara did?” 

“I think so,” Charlotte replied cautiously. “Will you help me?”

“Of course,” replied Audrey quickly, and when Charlotte looked to Nathan he nodded his agreement as well.

“We need to pull the aether out of Duke’s body. I can’t manipulate it as well as Mara could, but I think I can help you to pull it from him,” she told Audrey. “I know you don’t have Mara’s experience with it, but you have the same ability she did.”

Audrey nodded, “OK, what do I need to do?”

Charlotte stepped a bit closer, even more serious as she spoke again. “I have to be clear, this will be difficult, and it might not work completely. It probably won’t get rid of Duke’s original Trouble, just what Mara has done. It will be difficult for Audrey and it might be dangerous for Duke. It will hurt,” she warned him.

Audrey nodded, and so did Duke. “Do it,” he said.

Charlotte hesitated. “I’d like to be back in my lab for this, but I don’t know exactly how much time we have, so I think we should do it now." The decision made, she started giving out instructions. "Audrey you'll need to be touching; take hold of his hands." 

Charlotte stood beside them as Audrey and Duke stepped to face each other and clasped hands. 

"Mara used the aether out of anger and bitterness, but you can do this out of love,” Charlotte told Audrey. “You’ll need to focus on pulling the aether out of him, pulling the Troubles out of him. But don’t think of drawing it into yourself. I’m going to help you to hold it between your held hands, between the two of you where it won’t hurt anyone. I can’t pull it from him but I should be able to help contain it.” 

Charlotte stood to one side of them and held her hands out, one under Duke and Audrey’s clasped hands, one below theirs, palms facing each other. “Duke, try and think of sending the aether towards your hands, try and think of pushing the Troubles away, drawing them out from every part of you and pushing them away.”

Duke nodded, face grim.

“The Troubles work on emotion, strong emotions, and I think Mara has created some very negative ones in you to do this,” Charlotte added. “I know it’s hard but try not to think of her, try not to relive those emotions that she triggered in you. The more you can stay calm, the better.”

Duke nodded, closed his eyes and took a deep breath that he let out incredibly slowly. 

“Breathing exercises,” Charlotte realised. “Yes, OK that’s good.”

“Can I help?” Nathan asked.

“Stand behind Duke, ready to catch him in case he falls. I don’t know exactly how this will affect him; he might lose consciousness.”

“Duke, this is going to work, OK?," Audrey told him firmly, squeezing his hands. "And if it doesn’t …”

“We’ll find something else that does,” Nathan quickly finished Audrey’s sentence as he took up his position just behind Duke.

Audrey nodded and looked at Charlotte, who told her, “OK. Close your eyes. Focus on reaching out with your mind, find that pull of something you don’t know how to explain.”

Audrey closed her eyes, “I remember. From when William wanted me to …- There’s a sharpness, a kind of oily sharpness to it.”

Charlotte nodded. “OK, good. Focus on pulling it towards you. Pull it into the space between your hands.”

Audrey’s face creased in concentration. 

“You don’t have to do it all at once,” Charlotte added. “Slow and steady is better. Just make sure you don’t let go of his hands.”

For a long moment nothing much happened besides the look of concentration on Audrey’s face and the long, slow breaths of Duke’s deliberately-focused calm.

And then that calm was shattered as Duke started to shake, at first a little shudder and then violently as though in some kind of seizure. Nathan stepped up closer behind him and wrapped his arms tight around Duke’s chest to hold him upright. “I got you Duke. It’s alright. Let Audrey fix it.” 

Charlotte nodded to Nathan and then focused her attention more closely on the space between their hands. 

Nathan kept speaking, close in Duke’s ear, “We got you. Just breathe. Audrey’s gonna fix it. It’s working.”

Audrey’s frown of concentration grew and she gripped Duke’s hands all the more tightly. 

Nathan watched in horror as the veins in Duke’s wrists and hands turned black, and in concern as that started to leech out onto Audrey’s skin. And then he watched in fascination as the black oily goo left their hands to form a ball in mid air. At first it was tiny, barely big enough to see. But it quickly grew. 

The frown on Audrey’s face relaxed slightly; she could feel that it was working. Charlotte’s frown grew, as she worked harder and harder to make sure the growing stock of aether coalesed together. 

Nathan held Duke tight and kept speaking quietly to him over his shoulder, telling him it was working, telling him to keep breathing, telling him they weren’t going to stop until he was OK. The ball of aether between their hands grew and grew, changing shape, condensing and coallesing all over again, shifting and sparking as more and more aether flowed into it. What had at first been a slow and gradual process became quicker and quicker. Duke’s shaking became more and more violent until Nathan struggled to hold him up at all, but the aether kept flowing. Audrey and Charlotte held their concentration and then suddenly there was another flash of blue light, not unlike that which had signalled Mara’s departure. And then Nathan woke up on the ground with Duke lying on top of him.

“Duke?” Nathan said concerned, pushing Duke off of him and rolling over to take a look at him. The black was gone from his hands and he seemed to be merely unconscious, but Nathan couldn’t feel him to check for a pulse. He watched his chest, held an ear to his mouth and thought he could see and hear a shallow indication of breath. He pushed himself up and looked around to where Audrey and Charlotte were sitting up, looking dazed. “Can’t check his pulse,” he called to Audrey.

She pushed herself up and ran quickly over, “Duke?” she put her hands to his neck and then reached for his wrist but he stirred at her touch and they both relaxed a little. “Duke?” Audrey asked again. 

Duke opened his eyes and looked up at their concerned faces. “How will we know if it worked?” he croaked.

“I think it worked,” said Charlotte from some way behind them, standing in front of a gently rotating ball of aether that was still hanging in mid air. It was so black it was almost hard to look at, and it was about the size of a softball.

The other two helped Duke up and they joined Charlotte, peering at the multi-layered pattern of interlocking hexigons that seemed to be deeper than it had space for. 

“It’s condensed,” Charlotte told them at their questioning looks. “This is a  _ lot  _ of aether.” She looked at Duke with some amount of awe. “I’m not sure how you’re still alive. How do you feel?”

“Better,” he replied, then staggered a little bit, leaning against Nathan who held up him again. “I think.”

Charlotte turned her concern back to the floating ball.

“You OK Parker?” Nathan asked.

“I’m fine. It was strange, I could almost feel the part inside of me that’s Mara, or that  _ was _ Mara. But it wasn’t like before when William wanted me to Trouble people. It wasn’t another person trying to get out, or take control. It was just me, a thread of me; an ability. It helped. What do we do with this?” she asked Charlotte.

“It needs to go back into the void,” Charlotte began. “But so does the rest of the aether in Haven. I need to get to the Barn.”

“And then what?” Audrey asked.

“Then it’s time to fix Mara’s mess for good.”


End file.
